OPEC should hold output steady at Dec meeting: Libya

By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC should hold its oil output steady when it meets in December as current prices do not suggest the need to change supply, the head of Libya's National Oil Corporation said on Wednesday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps more than a third of the world's oil, will meet in Angola on December 22. Other member countries, such as Kuwait, have also indicated OPEC may hold output steady.

"I don't think there is any reason that warrants us to take any decision. The market is well supplied with oil, it has more than enough," Libya's Shokri Ghanem told Reuters.

Oil has rallied to around $79 a barrel from near $33 in December. But some analysts are cautious about the rally, seeing it as being driven by hopes of a recovering economy and dollar weakness, rather than stronger demand.

Ghanem, who returned to his position as head of NOC in October weeks after leaving the post for reasons that were never made clear, said oil demand was "a little bit sluggish".

"The market is still volatile, there is no sign of stability," he said.

"Prices are not high enough to take an action and not low enough to take an action. So unless in the next month something startling takes place, which I don't expect it will, no decision is the best decision," he said.

OPEC has kept official output targets unchanged at meetings this year after it agreed to curb supply by 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) last year to prop up prices, which tumbled as the recession eroded demand.

Ghanem, who missed OPEC's last conference in September, said he would be attending next month's meeting in Angola.